FamilySearch has added more than 70 million indexed genealogy
records to the free FamilySearch.org
over the past couple of weeks.

The indexed records come from the United States and 20 other
countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and the Caribbean.

Updated or new US records are from more than 20 states, plus New
England passenger lists.

You can access FamilySearch.org's indexed records by using the search boxes on
the FamilySearch.org home page (which will give you results from all
the indexed records on FamilySearch.org) or by using my favorite
method—searching that specific collection.

You can find the search page for a specific collection in one of two
ways:

use the place filters on FamilySearch.org: Scroll down on the
home page, choose a world region next to the map, then choose a
country, date range or collection on the left to narrow the
collection list to those covering your ancestor's lifetime. Then
click on the title for the collection you want to search.

Got Italian ancestors? More than 8.3 million new browsable images of
civil registrations and church records from Italy also were added.
Because these aren't yet indexed, you'll need to find the page for
the collection and then view records for the place in Italy your
ancestor lived. Click
here for FamilySearch.org's list of Italian record collections.

Ancestry.com has released a new Ancestry Facebook app that
helps you use Facebook to add to your Ancestry.com family tree. The
app lets you use your Facebook credentials to log into Ancestry.com,
get hints about Facebook members who may be family, add family
members on Facebook to your Ancestry tree and send copies of your tree to those relatives (which they can use to
start their own trees on Ancestry.com). Watch a
video of how the app works and get the app on Ancestry.com.

Note that when you add information from Facebook to your
Ancestry.com tree, you grant Ancestry.com permission to use the
information according to its Terms and Conditions and Privacy
Statement.

Our Photo Detective Maureen A. Taylor's book The Last Muster:
Images of the Revolutionary War Generation, will soon
become a historical film! Visit LastMusterFilm.com to
learn more about the project and how you can help the stories of the
book's subjects come to life through a donation to the Center for
Independent Documentary.

FamilySearch is holding a Genealogists Say "Thanks!" video
contest. Submit a video sharing an ancestral find in
FamilySearch indexes and thanking FamilySearch volunteer indexers
for their work. Five winners will each receive a $25 Visa gift
card and have their videos published on teh FamilySearch indexing
Facebook page. The submission deadline is November 5; see
the FamilySearch blog for contest rules and other details.

British genealogy website Genes Reunited has added a Keepsafe
feature where the site's members can store digital copies of
their family records, photos and memories. Keepsafes can be public,
private or shared with select others. Also new are Relation
Profiles, where members can view and edit details about people in
their Genes Reunited family trees. Check out the recently
revamped Genes Reunited here.

We're offering a package deal with our Family Tree University US
Military Records course: When you register for the course session
starting Oct. 15 for just $79.99, you'll get a coupon for additional
$20 off the Online Military Records webinar (the coupon code will be
in your course registration confirmation email).

Diana and Gary let slip these "preview" tips from the webinar to
share with you:

• Iowa is the 29th state, attaining statehood in
December 1846. Birth and marriage records began in 1880 and death
records in 1891. There are some online indexes (and even record
images) you can use from home—at least to get enough information
to request original records. We'll help you use these online
sources, and tell you where to go for the originals.

• Iowa is one of the lucky states with great state censuses. In
the webinar, we'll talk about when they were taken, what
information they include, where to find them, and how to use them.
You'll see examples of one of the greatest censuses in the country
(in our opinions:) and the three pages of information on each
enumerated individual.

• Land has always been one of Iowa's most important assets. The
first sale of most land was from the federal government to
individuals. Using the Bureau
of Land Management's General Land Office database and other
sources, we'll show you how to find land records and what they
mean to your research.

• The Iowa Genealogical
Society is large and active. We'll have some tips on
researching using the society's library in Des Moines. If you have
Iowa roots, this is one society you should join.

The Iowa
Genealogy Crash Course webinar takes place Tuesday, Oct. 30 at
7 p.m. ET (that's 6 p.m. CT, 5 p.m. MT and 4 p.m. PT). Once you're
registered, you'll receive access to view the recorded webinar again
as many times as you want, a PDF copy of the presentation slides and
12 pages of additional handouts that'll help you find Iowa
ancestors.

A brand-new genealogy event is happening soon, and it's called,
well, the Genealogy
Event. The conference, taking place Oct. 26 and 27 in New York
City at the Metropolitan Pavilion, is full of classes, special events and exhibits.

Family Tree Magazine is excited to sponsor Past to Apron, a
separately ticketed event ($30) that's all about where food meets
history. It features a talk by our editorial director Allison Dolan
about discovering and sharing your family's food heritage, a
giveaway of our beautiful book From
the Family Kitchen by Gena Philibert-Ortega (see how
pretty it is?)

and a tasting of the winning dish from the Past to Apron recipe
contest (now concluded; judging has commenced). You can choose from
sessions at 4 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday; order tickets at the same
time you get
your tickets to the Genealogy Event.

Genealogy Event exhibitors include companies (such as Family
Tree Magazine in booth 406), research organizations and
societies. Among those offering specials, Photo Detective Maureen A.
Taylor will be offering 15-minute consultations about your mystery
photos for a just $30. You
can reserve your spot here.

If you've got the day off for Canadian Thanksgiving (or if you're
American, for Columbus Day), take some time to trace your Canadian
kin with advice from these FamilyTreeMagazine.com articles (all
free) and resources from ShopFamilyTree.com:

UK genealogy website Origins.net is making its York Marriage
Bonds and Allegations Index (1613-1839) free to search until
Monday, October 8 at midday BST (if midday is the same as noon,
that would be Oct. 8 at 7 a.m. EST). Learn
more about this index here. You'll need to set up a free
registration on the site to search. If you find a record
you need in the index, you can order a copy by clicking "Add to
cart."

Free, collaborative family tree site WikiTree has reopened member
registration after closing it in January. The closure was
"to give the WikiTree community time to absorb the flood of
information that had been added by people who registered for a
free membership and uploaded GEDCOMs, but did not take the time
to integrate their genealogy into the shared family tree."

To help ensure that new members understand the site's
mission, newly registered members now receive a temporary and
limited Guest Membership. Those who want to become permanent
members can volunteer to participate in the community as a Wiki
Genealogist (requires signing an honor code), or they can ask if a
Wiki Genealogist will help connect their family to the shared
tree.

Most genealogists rely primarily on records to root out their relatives. However, the Internet has opened the doorway to other digitized documents. In particular, I'm referring to an oft-underutilized family research resource: Published Genealogies.

The new First Steps course from Family Tree University, Finding Family History Books About Your Ancestors, will show you where to find these manuscripts and what they might contain.

Genealogy is not a new pastime. During the colonial period, genealogy was seen as an attempt by early settlers to secure a measure of social standing within the British Empire. The truth is, people have been conducting family research for centuries, and many of these individuals might have published family trees--a resource that you now have the opportunity to plunder. From articles in genealogical society journals to entire books outlining specific lineages to searchable online databases of user-contributed family trees, this new course shows you how and where to look for the work others have already done, allowing you to save time and add branches to your family tree.

1000memories, founded in 2010, has a website where people can store and share digitized photos. Shoebox, the site’s accompanying mobile app for iPhone and Android, lets you use a cell phone camera to “scan” and upload documents to the site.

The app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times since its launch.

Ancestry.com has already begun incorporating the app into its services. To mark this announcement, 1000memories has launched a new version of ShoeBox for iOS (iPhones), enabling Ancestry.com members to post photos directly to ancestors profiles in their Ancestry.com member trees.

Detailed logs are an important tool in organizing your genealogy research.

These Fall 2012 Virtual Genealogy Conference tips come from the video session "Research Logs for the Rest of Us," hosted by Thomas MacEntee.

It's important to understand the "why" of using a research log. If you're using a log only because you know other people who are doing so, then you're wasting your time. Understand the benefits of tracking your research journey.

Select a format that you will continue to use. For instance, it is a poor idea to start your research log in Excel if you don't like using spreadsheets. Use a format you are comfortable with. Otherwise you'll only frustrate yourself and abandon the log.

Spend time setting up headings or categories. When you use a spreadsheet or table, take time to consider which headings to use. Don't be afraid to add or remove headings over time. It's only through constant use of the research log that you'll figure out the best headings for your research.

Shoot for a "one pass" goal. When you find a record or piece of information, note all of the information as if you might never find it again. This means noting the date you found it, the type of record, and even whether you are transcribing or abstracting it. You're only kidding yourself if you say that you'll come back to it later.

Maintaining a research log is a discipline. A discipline created through handwork, dedication and repetition until it becomes habit. Realize that you will make mistakes the first few entries, then you'll become better at entering information accurately and quickly.

Source citations matter, but take a shortcut! Create a cheat sheet--a document or spreadsheet tab where you can keep the most commonly used source citation formats. Then you can copy and paste them over to your research log to fill in the blanks.